Iggy Azalea: A star

She's known for her platinum hit Fancy... But there is so much more to Iggy Azalea..

Amethyst Amelia Kelly (born 7 June 1990), better known by her stage name Iggy Azalea, is an Australian recording artist and model from Mullumbimby, New South Wales. She left for the United States at the age of 16, to pursue a career in hip hop music, first residing in Miami, Florida, and then other parts of the South. She first gained recognition after the respective music videos for her controversial songs "Pu$$y" and "Two Times" went viral on YouTube. Between 2011 and 2012, Azalea released two mixtapes, an EP executive produced by American rapper T.I. and went into professional modeling, when she became represented by Wilhelmina Models and was announced the "New Face of Levi Jeans". Also in 2012, Azalea became the first female and non-American rapper to be featured on XXL magazine's annual Top 10 Freshman cover issue.

After label conflicts, her debut studio album The New Classic, was finally released on 21 April 2014. The album debuted inside the top five of several charts worldwide and was preceded by Azalea's commercial debut single "Work", the album's lead single which was followed by three other singles: "Bounce", "Change Your Life" (featuring T.I.) and "Fancy" (featuring Charli XCX). "Fancy", reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, with Azalea becoming only the fourth solo female rapper ever to top the Hot 100. Additionally, with Azalea featured on Ariana Grande's single "Problem", which rose to number two on the Hot 100, the same week "Fancy" topped the chart, Azalea joined The Beatles as the only acts to rank at numbers one and two simultaneously, with their first two Hot 100 hits.

Early life

Azalea began rapping at age 14. Before embarking on a solo career, Azalea formed a group with two other girls from her neighbourhood: "I was like, I could be the rapper. This could be like TLC. I'll be Left Eye." Azalea eventually decided to disband the group because the other girls weren't taking it seriously: "I take everything I do serious [sic]. I'm too competitive."

In pursuit of her desire to move to America, Azalea dropped out of high school. She worked and save the money she earned by cleaning hotel rooms and holiday houses with her mother. She claims to have hated school, which, apart from art class, only made her miserable. She also said she had no friends and was teased for her homemade outfits. Azalea travelled to the United States in 2006, right before she turned 16. She told her parents she was going "on a holiday" with a friend, but eventually decided to stay and shortly afterwards told them she was not coming back home: "I was drawn to America because I felt like an outsider in my own country, I was in love with hip hop, and America is the birthplace of that, so I figured the closer I was to the music, the happier I'd be. I was right."

Musical style and influences

Azalea cites American rappers Missy Elliott and Tupac Shakur as major influences. She raps with a Southern American accent, although her native Australian accent is quite strong when she speaks. When she first moved to America, she was in Miami and later in Atlanta, heavily around the Southern hip hop scene, which made it easy for her to cultivate the Southern influence in her music: "I lived in the South for five years; you pick up things from your surroundings and teachers. The people who taught me to rap are all from the South and so was the music I had listened to as a teen." Azalea's debut extended play Glory, was intended to focus on hardcore-rap, the EP also touched up on other genres including electronic dance music.

Although Azalea began rapping at the age of 14, she was infatuated with hip hop from age 11 when she heard Tupac Shakur's "Baby Don't Cry (Keep Ya Head Up II)": "It was the song that made me fall in love with music and also what sparked my Tupac fascination. That would later make me pick up my own pen and write songs". In her early interviews, Azalea regularly mentioned her influence by Shakur: "I was sickly obsessed. I had every picture of Tupac ever printed on my wall". She has also mentioned Missy Elliott as the female rapper who she is influenced by and admires the most. Outside of music, her fashion sense is influenced by various people as well: "As far as people whose style interests me I'd say Grace Kelly, Gwen, Spice Girls, Victoria Beckham, and that nanny called Fran."

New Music

Just released: T.I. feat Iggy Azaela - No Mediocre

T.I. and Iggy Azalea's new collaboration is far from mediocre. The Atlanta rapper enlisted his protege for "No Mediocre," the latest cut off of his upcoming album Paperwork: The Motion Picture, which is due out in September.